Wojciech Szczesny has provocatively claimed that Chelsea are run by a core of
English players and contrasted Arsène Wenger’s vast power at Arsenal with
recent managers at Stamford Bridge.

The battle for the third and fourth Champions League places looks increasingly likely to be a straight fight between the top three London clubs, with Szczesny, the Arsenal goalkeeper, hoping it is Tottenham who miss out.

Szczesny, though, was candid in his assessment of the supposed 'player power’ at Chelsea after Sunday’s sacking of Andre Villas-Boas left the club looking for an eighth manager in eight years.

He also dismissed the suggestion that Arsenal had been facing a deep crisis this season.

“I think some of the English lads at Chelsea run the club pretty much,” he said.

“They’ve had 10 different managers in the last few years. So it’s completely different at this club and we knew that sooner or later we were going to get a result.

“I don’t think there was a danger of chaos at Arsenal. We have a fantastic manager who knows how to run the club. All the players believe in what he’s doing.

“Sometimes things don’t go our way, but we believe in the way the manager runs the club, the way we want to play football, and doing that we know that even if things are wrong we’re going to turn it around and win games.”

Szczesny did not mention any names but John Terry, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole have been the three English regulars at Chelsea in recent years and are widely perceived to yield considerable influence.

Lampard and Cole were controversially dropped by Villas-Boas from the team that started the first leg of their Champions League tie against Napoli.

Asked how player power could affect a dressing room, Szczesny said: “I don’t know because we’re all even at this club. I’ve never experienced it in my life.

“We have the boss, and we know who is the boss in the dressing room, and that’s Arsène Wenger obviously, and the skipper Robin van Persie who is the leader in the team. But we’re all even in the dressing room, and so I can’t really say anything about it.”

Arsenal were eliminated from the Champions League 4-3 on aggregate following their 3-0 win against AC Milan on Tuesday, but are on a run of four consecutive wins in the Premier League. It is a sequence that has taken them three points clear of Chelsea in fourth and also reduced Tottenham’s cushion in third place to just four points.

“I think we’re in a position where we don’t have to look at any other teams,” said Szczesny. “We’re in a position that gives us Champions League football next season and it’s all in our hands. If we don’t drop any points, we’ll keep the fourth spot and hopefully challenge Tottenham for the third spot. Ideally we’d finish third and Chelsea would finish fourth.

“I’m sure Chelsea will pick themselves up sooner or later, but hopefully not soon enough to get in front of Arsenal.”

Szczesny also reflected on Arsenal’s Champions League exit, describing the players as “heartbroken” to be eliminated by AC Milan.

“But I think we should look at the positives from the game: we had a great performance, kept a clean sheet and scored three goals against one of the best sides in Europe,” he said.

“We have a belief in the dressing room that we can beat anyone in the country or in Europe if we are at our best.”